DOWNTOWN. Nestled in downtown Honolulu is this sacred structure, the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the US. The first Catholic missionaries arrived on Hawaiian shores in 1827, and the construction of the church was completed in 1843. The land on which it sits was given to the mission by King Kamehameha III. In 1864, Father Damien de Veuster was ordained here. De Veuster tended to, and greatly improved, the leper colony on the island of Molokai, remaining in his post even after contracting the disease himself. In 1972, the cathedral was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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